The Pittsburgh Pirates have lost seven of their last nine games. They have lost three series in a row. The most recent defeat was a 4-2 loss to the Miami Marlins on Sunday, with Paul Skenes on the mound.

The beleaguered Bucs have gone from 34-29 on June 3 in Houston to 36-36 as they head west to play the Athletics in Sacramento.

Less than two weeks ago, the club held the National League’s second wild card spot. Now there are five teams between them and a potential playoff spot.

Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin are hurt. The starting rotation is slipping. The defense is questionable. The bullpen is a mess, and the lineup still strikes out too much and makes too many outs with runners in scoring position.

During this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X says there is a lesson to be learned from how things are going lately for the Pirates.

“Pirates fans, and maybe the media, probably overestimated where the Pirates are once they spent a little bit more money and made a trade for a guy like Brandon Lowe,” Madden said. “We skipped a step. We thought they went from bad to good. They went from bad to mediocre, which is to say: Not good enough.”

This recent lull has left the Pirates mired in fourth place in the National League Central Division, 8½ games behind first-place Milwaukee. Madden is wondering whether the Pirates’ locker room is getting a wake-up call.

“I watch these (postgame) interviews. I saw Skenes talk (Sunday) after the game,” Madden said. “Do you get the idea that the Pirates are beginning to realize they’re not as good as they thought? Some doubt is seeping in. When a team is as borderline as they are for challenging for a wild card — let alone getting one — they can’t afford that. A lot of that trickles down from Skenes not being dominant anymore. They don’t need him to be good. If he’s good, he might as well be bad. They need him to be dominant.”

Indeed, Skenes has been much more human in 2026 than he was in 2024-25.

But I’d argue that, for much of the past month or so, the entire starting rotation has had difficulties. Mitch Keller has been the chief offender.

The right-hander is 5-4 on the season with an ERA of 5.14. Back on May 7, his ERA was 2.87. During the podcast, I argued that if the Pirates can trade him for bullpen help of any degree, they should. Get Carmen Mlodzinski back in the starting rotation to replace Keller.

“If the bullpen arm was good enough? I would do that because this team has to gamble on deals like that to get to the next level. If they don’t pan out well, they’re not there anyway,” Madden agreed. “Yeah, I would make a deal like that.”

Also, during the podcast, Madden and I discuss Skenes’ latest performance, his dip in velocity, Penguins trade talk, Major League Baseball’s labor situation, the World Cup and the NBA Finals.